✅ SOLVED Washed Up on the Beach this Morning

[Bigcypresshunter]

A friend posted these pics this morning found on a South Florida beach. The sphere is about the size of a basketball and may be a solar GPS. Can anybody identify it? Is this bamboo raft for refugees or something else? Sorry all I have is the 3 photos.

 

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[huntsman53]

Hopefully it is not a refugee raft! It appears that it may actually be an experiment possibly to track currents or tides. If so, then the person, persons or agency that launched the raft with possible GPS, may come to retrieve it.


Frank

 

[Sheldon J]

the electronics is interesting, is there any ID on the bottom side of it?

on a side not tried to google the writhing and nada...

 

[P@tch]

Nice, If I found it I would take it home and keep it. Just Saying.

 

[ARC]

Well if you take that home...

"They" whoever "they" is...

will be knocking on the door if it is in fact a GPS.

 

[ARC]

p.S.> I would think they may offer a reward for shipping back to them...

Whole lot cheaper that flying in to pick it up.

See if any "return info".

 

[tamrock]

weird! A tiki tracking device

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Yes its a solar powered GPS

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

It appears to say P/DISCOVERE 779





We have discovered what it is. I will tell you later when I have more time..

 

[nhbenz]

You're on the gulf side of Florida, right? There was a lot of current flow testing in that area using these after the oil spill, like the one here: NOAA - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - Monitoring & Understanding Our Changing Planet

 

[fowledup]

I saw a show were they were using those or what looked like those to track and map the oceans currents and temp changes.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Another one was found in Islamorada

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

You're on the gulf side of Florida, right? There were a lot of experiments in that area after the oil spill, like the one the USF students took part in here: NOAA - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - Monitoring & Understanding Our Changing Planet

No the Atlantic Ocean side

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

We think its an FAD. What does a FAD look like, anyway? ? International Seafood Sustainability Foundation

FADs can either be free drifting or anchored. Fishers construct drifting FADs to imitate natural drifting objects with some sort of float on the surface made of bamboo and other buoyant materials, but usually enhance the FAD with some sort of netting or rope hanging beneath them. Natural logs can also be enhanced and left it drift in order to attract tuna – those aggregations generally have the same characteristics as those found beneath manmade FADs. The key to a drifting FAD is the installation of an electronic buoy that reports its GPS position to the fishing vessel.

 

[OWK]

Take the GPS.... put it in a metal toolbox.

Next road trip you take, pull it out of the toolbox at random intervals, every hundred miles or so... then put it back in.

That'll mess with 'em.

 

[2screwed]

There is a chance that it was used by the French. This article describes them using bamboo rafts with netting and gps locators in the Atlantic ocean.

PLOS ONE: Large-Scale Examination of Spatio-Temporal Patterns of Drifting Fish Aggregating Devices (dFADs) from Tropical Tuna Fisheries of the Indian and Atlantic Oceans

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

There is a chance that it was used by the French. This article describes them using bamboo rafts with netting and gps locators in the Atlantic ocean.

PLOS ONE: Large-Scale Examination of Spatio-Temporal Patterns of Drifting Fish Aggregating Devices (dFADs) from Tropical Tuna Fisheries of the Indian and Atlantic Oceans

Good information.

We find that dFADs drift at sea on average for 39.5 days, with time at sea being shorter and distance travelled longer in the Indian than in the Atlantic Ocean. 9.9% of all trajectories end with a beaching event, suggesting that 1,500-2,000 may be lost onshore each year,

 

[basque-man]

Weird!!! Probably get a reward for it though!!!!!

 

[tompitch4d]

Another one was found in Islamorada

View attachment 1183910

Can you tell me more about this photo off Islamorada. I'm interested in the who, when, and where.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Can you tell me more about this photo off Islamorada. I'm interested in the who, when, and where.

I saw it on Facebook and copied and pasted the photos here to help him identify it as a curiosity item. I will try to find it but it wont be easy because I cant remember the page i found it on.